Planning a party is hard in itself, but when this party is connected to your workplace, the trouble is even bigger. Corporate events have many fields to cover, from inviting guests and welcoming your speakers to creating content for marketing and ensuring plenty of connections are made. So how can you plan a perfect event for your company that will tick off all the boxes? Here’s a little guide for event planning that will ensure you can keep your job and even maybe get a nice bonus.
Settle on the event purpose
Before you start booking your venues and planning for decoration, it’s important to consider your corporate event’s purpose. What do you expect from this party? What do you want your guests to remember the most? Do you want it to be relaxing or meaningful and engaging? After you settle on your goals and expectations, it will be much easier for your event planning to unfold. Your event will have a clear direction and the organization will look much more professional, even if the event is organized by staff or beginner planners.
Who you gonna call?
With corporate events, you have a wide variety of choices when it comes to your audience. Do you want to impress the upper management and big shots with your event? Do you want to pay respect to your staff and business partners? Or maybe you want to bring your brand closer to your audience and community members? Different audience requires different approach to planning. When it comes to the number of guests, it’s always better to invite more people. Empty seats and untouched snacks will look very bad in your photos and just be a waste of money.
Come up with a program
While most people attend corporate events to mingle and catch up with acquaintances (or make new connections), it’s also important to have some sort of event program. Maybe you want to honor your best employees or clients or premiere a new product. Hiring someone for a short lesson or speech is also a great idea that will make your event more professional and successful. These happenings in the middle of your event create nice breaks for people, allowing them to gather new information and get new subjects to discuss afterward.
Book catering
No matter how good your event’s program, your guests will leave your event grumpy and mad if they are kept hungry and thirsty. Luckily, you don’t have to prepare food yourself or mix drinks for your guests. In many places, especially across Australia, there are various catering companies focusing on different types of foods and drinks. If you search for the best catering in Melbourne, you’ll come across excellent catering projects providing their customers with everything tasty. If you want your event to stand out, and you do, food is just one of the ways to do it, so order everything from premium sandwiches and cured meats to fruit platters, artisanal cheese boards and even salad roll boxes. People love to try new things and take photos of food, so you can expect some free marketing.
Pay for professional entertainment
After your main program is over and all the speakers are off the stage, your event can start looking more like a party. Even the most professional people love to let loose, mingle and do some chill dancing. For that reason, hire a good DJ to provide your guests with some music. Depending on your budget, you can also hire dancers, performers and live musicians to entertain your guests. Corporate events aimed at staff and community members can quickly turn into full-blown parties, and that’s very beneficial to your brand loyalty.
Promote your event
There’s no way for people to come to your event if they don’t know about it. If your event is invitation-only, then make sure to send them out at least one month prior to the event, preferably even earlier. If your corporate event is available to the public, it’s necessary to promote it over email and ads in the industry newsletters. Promo videos on social media are also very effective, especially among the younger audience. And finally, you can encourage your sales teams to mention your event when talking to clients and partners. It’s always nice to receive an in-person invite.
With these organizational elements in mind, you can expect your corporate event to be a true success. Your hard work on this event will benefit your business, brand and personal career in many ways!
